


Wishes

by Breyito



Series: What If...? [7]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Dad!Tony Stark, Gen, Heavy Angst, Inspired by the Infinity War trailer, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Sorry Not Sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-01
Updated: 2017-08-01
Packaged: 2018-12-09 18:42:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11674917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Breyito/pseuds/Breyito
Summary: This...this just couldn't be happening.





	Wishes

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for the angst?? Not really, so... I've been feeling down lately, and then the leaked trailer came out and well...I haven't seen this done yet, so I hope it's okay? I cried like a baby while writing it so...  
> BTW, listen to this song while you read: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3iEoZdImpY  
> It's from the play and it's so sad it'll just add to the experience.  
> No beta, so any mistakes please let me know!  
> Hope you enjoy it!

“PETER, _NO_!!” Tony hears himself scream; but it’s too late. He knows it’s too late as he says it. He runs to the kid’s side and Rhodey and Barnes provide cover for them. He half holds, half drags the teenager to the nearest building that looks kind of stable; so that he can check the kid’s injury. War Machine and Winter are already back in the fight, although they are protecting the entrance, so that they can tend to the wound. Tony is incredibly grateful to them.

 

He tries contacting his armors again; tries talking to FRIDAY while he tears his jacket off to use as a bandage. He tears the Spider-Man suit even more (it already has a hole on it) and Tony prays that the wound isn’t so bad as that would suggest, but it _is_. It’s _worse_.

 

“Karen, vitals. How is he?” he asks the AI, while bundling up his jacket and pressing it to the wound. It worries him that Peter hasn’t said anything yet, just whimpers or little cries.

 

“ _Mr. Stark...it’s no good, boss. Peter is losing a lot of blood. His stomach, liver and aorta have been punctured. With no instant medical care, I’m afraid...Boss? I’m afraid he won’t make it._ ” she answers, voice trembling. She is young, but she’s learning; and she _adores_ Peter. This must be hurting her too.

 

“Kid? Hey, kid.” Tony says, removing the mask. He taps the boy’s cheek a few times until Peter opens his eyes.

 

“Wha-? Wher-? Ow!” he says, breathing fast and looking at his chest, where the blood is pouring out and drenching Tony’s jacket.

 

“You were impaled and then thrown away a quite a few yards, Pete.” he answers, grim. “We have to try and contain the bleeding, alright? Until I can get one of my suits and get you out of here.” The boy nods, and puts his hands on his stomach, over Tony’s.

 

“... _Bos-s_?” he hears on his ear.

 

“Thank god, FRI! In how long can a suit get here? Any suit. _Any_. Peter is injured and I need to-”

 

“ _-I-m...zzorry, Bos-z, the suitz and I have been compro-missed..._ ” she says, before going off line.

 

“No, no, no, no!” Tony yells, the reality setting in. He can’t leave this place; so Peter can’t leave this place. And there’s no chance of him surviving without medical care. “Where is the nearest hospital!?” he yells in his comm, trying to look for an alternative.

 

“ _Four blocks away; it was demolished by the first wave._ ” answers War Machine, in a tight voice.

 

“No, no, no, no...” keeps murmuring the engineer. Peter looks at him and holds his hand a bit tighter.

 

“It’s okay.”

 

“No, it’s not _okay_! You are fucking _sixteen_! You are not supposed to be _dying_! Not you, not you.” he repeats.

 

Peter makes a chocking noise and a bit of blood pours out of his mouth. Tony takes a deep breath and tries to calm down. He, he won’t fall apart in front of Peter. He is not the one dying here.

 

“What is it? Do you need to be prompted up?” he asks, already moving to fit Peter’s shoulders and head on his lap. “Better?” he asks, and then wants to slap himself for his stupidity.

 

“It..it _hurts_ , Tony” whispers Peter, looking at him with shinning eyes full of tears. Tony swallows. He doesn’t... _can’t_ believe that this young, smart and kind boy was about to leave this world. That he won’t have Peter’s smile as a company in his labs, the continue blabber that always cheers his days up, or that he will have to live the rest of his miserable existence without another hug from this kid that dig himself a hole in Tony’s heart and never left.

 

Tony would give everything he has, and he means _everything_ , if with that Peter would live. Because what do armors, and cars and houses and _money_ mean when he can’t save this brilliant kid; when he can’t do anything but lay there and let him _bleed out on his lap!?_ He would give his life too; but that’s not worth much, is it? He has tried _everything_ ; and nothing will work. The other suits are not responding, the nearest hospital is destroyed (as is everything around them), and the kid probably lost a chunk of his liver and his aorta; and _Tony_ _can’t do anything_!! He wishes, oh, how he _wishes_ that Peter hadn’t jumped in front of him. God, if only he had left on his suit (and he knows, he _knows_ that he will feel so guilty for thinking that later; because that family needed to be out of this area, but damn it, this is his _kid_!!) so he could get Peter some help; get him to a hellicarrier or something. They are trapped in this ruined floor of what used to be a nice building, with only parts of the walls as protection; and Tony barely managed to get Peter here and away from the actual fight. He is to _old_ and too _weak_ to help...to help one of the most important people of his life.

 

“Peter, Peter why...? Why!?” he half yells, tears falling on the kid’s cheeks, mixing with the blood on his face. “Why did you do that? I-”

 

“Y-you would have d-died...” Peter answers him in a murmur.

 

“ ** _You_** _are dying!_ ” Tony sobs, “Peter, you are _dying_ and I _can’t_ _stop_ _it_.” he cries, burring his head on his chest.

 

“A-are you mad?” Peter asks with a grimace. “Because I’m sorry, Tony, _I’m sorry_ , but I couldn’t let you die. I can’t lose another p-parent when I can do something to help it.” and now the kid is crying too and Tony feels even worse, because these are his last moments on this earth and Tony is making him feel guilty over sacrificing his own life, damn it.

 

“No, no, kid, I’m not mad.” he whispers, caressing the boy’s hair, trying to comfort him a bit. “I’m _proud_ of you, Peter. You were _magnificent_ out there. I just wish you hadn’t done that. I _care_ about you, Pete, I love you like a son; the last thing I want is to see you die.” he weeps.

 

“Don’t leave!” Peter exclaims, trying to move and then crying out at the pain that caused him.

 

“Hey, hey, hey” Tony hushes him. “I’m not going anywhere, okay? I’m not leaving you.” he promises, more tears pouring out of his eyes. Peter nods minutely, relaxing as much as possible while being in such amount of pain.

 

“Can you...” starts the kid.

 

“Can I what?” asks Tony. “Anything you want, I’ll do it.”

 

“Can you sing to me? Like you do s-sometimes to your bots?” he shyly asks, blushing a bit.

 

“Yeah, yes, of course.” agrees Tony. “What do you want me to sing?”

 

“I don’t know...something soft. Calm.”

 

“Like a lullaby?” wonders the engineer. “I don’t know any lullabies...” but Tony already knows what he wants to sing to Peter. He probably decided he would sing this to him a long time ago; but never got around to do it, and he now regrets that with all his being. He wishes he could share this in a happier occasion, but he’s a sadistic selfish bastard, and he wants this memory; no matter how much it’ll hurt. “...but I might know something. Close your eyes, please. Try to relax, okay? The pain will stop soon enough” he says, swallowing a sob.

 

Peter listens to him (for once, he listens to him); and Tony lets out all the tears he was holding back. He has enough practice singing this song while crying.

 

“T-try to remember the kind of September when life was slow and oh, so mellow... Try to remember the kind of September when grass was g-green and grain was yello-ow...” he keeps singing, never taking his eyes of Peter’s face. His memory takes notice of every detail; because this is the last time he will see his boy alive. “... try to remember when life was... so tender that d-dreams were kept beside your p-pillow...” Tony knows that if he had let Peter’s dream be just that, a dream, this wouldn’t have happened. He tried to help the kid, and as always, he ended up ruining it all. Peter is dying. There’s...there’s no other choice here. No escape. No waking up from a nightmare. The kid was dying, every breath slower and shallower than the one before, and...and it was all his fault. “... D-deep in December it's n-nice to remember without the hu-rt the h-heart is h-hollow...” The last smile Peter ever gave was a small, beautiful thing; and Tony will cherish it in his heart forever. _‘Thanks for staying, d-dad’_ are his lasts words, and Tony feels like a string has been cut inside of him, and then he’s burying his head in Peter’s chest and finishing the song between whimpers and sobs “d-deep in D-December ou-ur hea-arts should r-remember a-and f-follow...” 

 

The scream that tears itself out of his throat when he hears nothing on Peter’s chest freezes the blood on every being that gets to listen to it; Avenger, Guardian, ally or foe.

**Author's Note:**

> And? Did I make you cry?? xD  
> Leave me a kudo, a comment, an idea...I love hearing from you!
> 
> Visit me on Tumblr, I'm breyito there too ;P


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